


Reunion and Parting

by ineptshieldmaid



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-12
Updated: 2009-02-12
Packaged: 2017-10-13 13:34:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/137948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ineptshieldmaid/pseuds/ineptshieldmaid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Trojie, in honour of Darwin's Birthday, put forth the prompt 'intermarriage' at <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/edmund_caspian/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/edmund_caspian/"><b>edmund_caspian</b></a>, and this happened. All you need to know about my cracky Lucy/Caspian AU is that Edmund absconded from the Dawn Treader on the Lone Islands, Lucy returned to Narnia with Caspian as his Queen, and later in their lives she ran into the plotline from <i>The Silver Chair</i>, in which she, rather than her son, was kidnapped. A complicated rescue is effected, involving Edmund, Grown Up Eustace and canon-age Jill, which I have entirely skipped over here.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Reunion and Parting

**Author's Note:**

> Trojie, in honour of Darwin's Birthday, put forth the prompt 'intermarriage' at [](http://www.livejournal.com/users/edmund_caspian/profile)[**edmund_caspian**](http://www.livejournal.com/users/edmund_caspian/), and this happened. All you need to know about my cracky Lucy/Caspian AU is that Edmund absconded from the Dawn Treader on the Lone Islands, Lucy returned to Narnia with Caspian as his Queen, and later in their lives she ran into the plotline from _The Silver Chair_ , in which she, rather than her son, was kidnapped. A complicated rescue is effected, involving Edmund, Grown Up Eustace and canon-age Jill, which I have entirely skipped over here.

When Caspian dies, he has many regrets, but he has no fears for his kingdom. He leaves behind a son well fit to rule, and the Lords Eustace and Drinian to guide him.  
As he lies dying, Caspian wishes he had not called off the search for his wife. He realises that his son will never forgive him that, never understand, as Caspian does, that Queen Lucy was bound to disappear, as King Edmund had before her. He supposes Lord Eustace will disappear in turn, too, and then Peter may understand.  
As Caspian lies dying, he has many regrets. It is to his shame that his greatest regret is not the loss of his wife, whom he has loved and honoured for many years, but of her brother.

* * *

Caspian wakes and finds himself lying on pebbles. Water, around and above him, glitters with bending light: it is all around him, but its source is easy to find. His outline wavery through the stream's surface, there is Aslan, looming above him, and beside him two, no three people.

There is blood in the water. Caspian knows it is not his - he knows at once that he will not bleed again. One of the people above must be bleeding. He staggers to his feet, and feels the years drop off him. By the time his eyes meet Edmund's, he is the same man who hauled the sopping boy out of the water twenty years ago.

Edmund is older now, his scrawny boy's frame abandoned for lean limbs and many scars. It is he who hauls Caspian out of the water, this time: reaches out to clasp Caspian's forearm, blood dripping from his palm.  
Caspian says the first thing which comes to his mind, which is not 'why are you here?' or 'where am I?' or even 'where have you been?', but 'You're bleeding'.

Edmund shakes his head, and then Caspian sees Aslan, licking his paw and looking enormously self-satisfied. Lucy is beside him, and her smile is radiant.Caspian does as he has never dared to do, as Lucy has always done: goes at once to Aslan, puts his arms around the great neck, buries his face in the great golden mane, and hears the Lion rumble in delight.  
Somehow, in a tangle of limbs and fur and sunshine, Caspian ends up sprawled in the crook of Aslan's forelegs as the great cat stretches out on his side, and then Lucy is tucked in beside Caspian, and it is the easiest thing in the world to kiss her. Caspian is young again, but Lucy is as he has never seen her: a grown woman, a great queen in the high summer of life. He kisses her lips, her brow, and she tucks her arms around him as she has always done, cradling the back of his neck in her hand.

Eventually it is Lucy who pulls him to his feet again, and Caspian finds Edmund watching them with a sad sort of smile. He and Lucy reach out at the same time and Edmund takes each of their hands, is pulled in close to them until their foreheads all rest together. He ought to ask where they are, or how long they have (for he knows instinctively that he and they must part ways), but no words are forthcoming.

It is Edmund who nudges closer, presses his lips to Caspian's, pulling just a little on Caspian's lower lip, and, by all that's ancient, it may have been twenty years, but Caspian has not forgotten. He drops Edmund's hand and wraps his fingers into his hair, holding him in close even as Edmund pulls back.

'I'm sorry,' Edmund whispers, against his mouth. Caspian breathes the words back: I'm sorry you had to leave, I'm sorry you must leave again, I'm sorry I'd taken your place.

'I should have taken better care of Lucy,' he adds, for they are both still holding her hands.

'As should I,' Edmund murmurs back, and Lucy stands on tiptoe to kiss each of their cheeks, tells them both she loves them. Her lips catch first Caspian's and then Edmund's, at the very corners of their mouths.

When they come to part, Caspian kisses Lucy long and Edmund hard, and then the two of them walk away once more. He stands at Aslan's side and watches them as they go hand-in-hand.


End file.
